Five years ago, on April 13, 2014, Kiev decided to launch a military operation against the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas, whose residents refused to recognize the legitimacy of the new government after the overthrow of sitting President Viktor Yanukovych in February
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th April, 2019) Five years ago, on April 13, 2014, Kiev decided to launch a military operation against the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas, whose residents refused to recognize the legitimacy of the new government after the overthrow of sitting President Viktor Yanukovych in February.
On February 22, 2014, Ukraine's one-chamber parliament, the Verkhovna Rada voted to impeach Yanukovych before announcing the next presidential election to be held on May 25. Oleksandr Turchynov was appointed Ukraine's acting president.
Some of the country's southeastern regions did not recognize the legitimacy of the new Kiev authorities. From March, proponents of the country's federalization started holding rallies in eastern Ukraine, specifically in Donetsk, Kharkiv and Luhansk, demanding referendums on the status of their regions. Such protests then spread to several other cities in the Donetsk region, including Slovyansk, Mariupol, Yenakijeve and Kramatorsk.
Protesters in Donetsk and Kharkiv seized regional administration buildings and took control of the Ukrainian Security Service's regional administration building in Luhansk.
On April 7, 2014, following the seizure of administrative buildings in Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk, acting President Turchynov announced the creation of an anti-crisis headquarters, while also saying that "anti-terrorist measures will be taken against those who have taken up arms."
On April 13, the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council decided to launch a full-scale operation with the use of armed forces.
On April 14, Turchynov enacted the National Security and Defense Council's decision to take "emergency measures" to protect the country's territorial integrity.
On April 16, the First Reserve Battalion of the National Guard, which enrolled volunteers from the Maidan Self-Defense Force, was sent to the front line near Slovyansk, which was occupied by the Donbas People's Militia on April 12.
On May 2, an active phase of the special operation against pro-federalization supporters began in Slovyansk.
On May 11, referendums were held in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions on their status. As a result, the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR) proclaimed themselves sovereign states.
Igor Strelkov assumed command of the armed forces of the self-proclaimed DPR and declared a "counterterrorist operation" regime.
On May 25, a snap presidential election was held in Ukraine. A total of 21 candidates stood for the presidency. The winner was Petro Poroshenko, with 54.7 percent of the vote. On June 7, Petro Poroshenko was sworn in as president of Ukraine.
Within two weeks of Poroshenko's inauguration, combat operations in the Donetsk Region spread from Slovyansk to the entire region, including Mariupol, Kramatorsk and Horlivka.
Poroshenko vowed to put an end to the special operation shortly, and proposed a 15-point peace plan. The plan envisaged exemption from criminal liability for all those, who agreed to lay down their arms and had not committed serious crimes, as well as the release of hostages. The plan also envisaged steps toward decentralization of government, protection of the Russian language and amendments to the Ukrainian Constitution.
Poroshenko ordered a week-long ceasefire for all law enforcement, defense and security units involved in the special operation in the east of the country.
The truce lasted 10 days. On July 1, Ukrainian security forces resumed the active phase of the special operation.
On July 4, Ukrainian security forces took control of several cities in the east of the country, including Slovyansk, Kramatorsk, Artyomovsk (currently, Bakhmut) and Druzhkivka. The militia forces in the north of the Donetsk Region retreated to Donetsk, Horlivka and Snizhne.
In mid-July, in a bid to encircle the territory controlled by the self-defense forces (primarily Donetsk, Horlivka, Makiivka and Luhansk) and cut it off from the Russian border, Ukrainian security forces established a 8-10 kilometer (5-6 mile) "corridor" between the border and the militias. The offensive fell through due to fierce resistance from the militias. Several Ukrainian army units were encircled before running out of ammunition, food and water supplies.
In late July, after running out of ammunition and losing significant numbers of personnel, Ukrainian servicemen started crossing into Russia on a mass scale, fleeing militia fire. The biggest "exodus" came late on August 3, when a total of 438 Ukrainian servicemen asked the Russian Border Guard Service for asylum.
Following the security forces' retreat from the border, the self-defense forces tightened their control over the border in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
On July 17, Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777, en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, crashed over Donetsk. All 298 people on board, including 193 Dutch nationals, were killed. The Ukrainian authorities accused the militia of shooting down the plane, while the militia said they did not have weapons capable of hitting the plane.
In late August, Ukrainian battalions were encircled near Ilovaisk in the Donetsk region, including the headquarters of the Eighth Army Corps, the 28th, the 30th and the 93rd Motorized Infantry Brigades, the 95th Airmobile Brigade, the Aidar, Donbas, and Shakhtarsk territorial defense battalions, attached to them, and the National Guard Azov and Dnipro battalions.
After days of encirclement, the government forces reached an agreement with independence supporters, which allowed them to retreat from the besieged town.
On September 5, with Russian and OSCE mediators, the Kiev authorities and the self-proclaimed DPR and LPR signed a ceasefire protocol. The parties also reached an agreement on the withdrawal of heavy weapons, prisoner exchange and humanitarian assistance. The intensity of hostilities somewhat abated but fighting and attacks continued in certain sectors.
Starting from September, several rounds of talks were held in Minsk between representatives of Ukraine and the self-proclaimed republics with OSCE and Russian mediation. The sides discussed a ceasefire and its monitoring by the OSCE, the withdrawal of heavy weapons from the line of demarcation between the security forces and the militias and the exchange of prisoners.
In early 2015, the conflict in Donbas escalated. On January 18, 2015, the Ukrainian forces intensified the shelling of Donetsk. Kiev officially recognized that it was conducting a massive special operation at the city's airport.
The fighting culminated in the Battle for Debaltseve where massive Ukrainian forces were encircled by the DPR and LPR troops.
On February 12, the Normandy-format talks on the settlement of the Donbas crisis took place in Minsk with the participation of German, Russian, French and Ukrainian leaders. Consultations of the Trilateral Contact Group, including Russia, Ukraine and the OSCE, were held in the Belarusian capital.
Two documents were agreed on during the marathon talks.
The talks produced two documents. The first was the Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreement, which envisioned a ceasefire and the pullout of heavy artillery from the line of contact to create a 50-150 kilometer security zone. The Agreement also called for a constitutional reform in Ukraine, including decentralization and granting special status to Luhansk and Donetsk.
The second document was a declaration in support of the Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreement, which was adopted by the Normandy Four leaders.
On February 17, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution in support of the Minsk Agreement to resolve the crisis in Ukraine.
Shortly after the ceasefire was declared, fighting resumed in Donbas, with both sides blaming each other and claiming they were only returning fire.
In 2016, the Contact Group signed a framework agreement in Minsk on the withdrawal of forces and weapons from the contact line in Donbas. The agreement was not fully implemented with both parties accusing each other of its breaches.
There were more than 20 attempts to cease hostilities in Donbas but all of them collapsed having managed only to de-escalate tensions for some time.
Another ceasefire entered into force at 22:00 GMT on March 8 but sporadic fighting is still registered. The self-proclaimed republics are accusing Kiev of staging provocations ahead of the presidential election.
According to experts, the only achievement in implementation of the Minsk Agreements is the exchange of prisoners held in late 2017. Despite the parties' declared commitments to continuation of the prisoners' swap, the process has stalled since then.
On April 30, 2018, Poroshenko signed a document on the termination of the anti-terror operation in Donbas turning it into the Joint Forces Operation. The move allowed Kiev to legitimize the use of Armed Forces in the conflict zone in the peacetime.
According to the United Nations, more than 10,000 people were killed as a result of the conflict, including over 3,000 civilians.
The Ukrainian authorities granted the status of veteran of the anti-terror operation to more than 363,000 people.
Several journalists were killed during the conflict in Donbas. The list includes among others Rossiya Segodnya's special photo correspondent Andrei Stenin, Channel 1 operator Anatoly Klyan, Rossiya tv network correspondent Igor Kornelyuk and sound engineer Anton Voloshin. All of them were posthumously awarded the Order of Courage in Russia.
